Ideas held in mind just before sleep are claimed to receive privileged access to the subconscious.
Two real findings sit near this claim and neither supports it. Material studied before sleep is better retained than material studied and followed by waking activity, and cues presented during sleep can bias which memories consolidate. Both concern memory for learned content, not the installation of beliefs or goals.
In practice
- A student who revises before sleeping retains more than one who revises and then watches television.
- A person who repeats a wish at bedtime for a month has practised the sentence and not the outcome.
- Possible explanations
- The explanation offered is privileged access to the subconscious before sleep. The findings nearby are different: material studied before sleep is consolidated better than material followed by waking activity, and cues presented during sleep can strengthen specific memories.
- In its favour
- Sleep-dependent consolidation is well established, and targeted memory reactivation shows that what was recently learned can be strengthened during sleep.
- Against it
- Neither finding supports suggestion before sleep changing beliefs or dispositions, no mechanism is offered beyond the metaphor, and the evidence given is testimonial and selected on success.
- Standing
- Testimonial evidence selected on success, with no comparison group. Sleep does consolidate recently learned material, and targeted memory reactivation during sleep has experimental support. Neither supports privileged access for intentions or affirmations.
- Subject
- Psychology & Behavior
- Essay
- Moralists, aphorists and the self-help tradition